Relative to pre-pandemic levels, US marriages have increased, with approximately 2.1 million in 2022.
That is a 4% rise over the previous year. Although they did not share marital statistics for the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data on Friday.
The number of US weddings fell to 1.7 million in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lowest since 1963. Many marriage preparations were derailed by the epidemic, which caused communities to order residents to stay at home and prohibit big gatherings in attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Then in 2021, marriages increased, though not to the pre-pandemic proportions. They increased slightly more in 2022 and marginally overtook 2019 marriage data.
From 2021 to 2022, the states with the biggest increases in marriages were Hawaii, New York, and the District of Columbia. The highest marriage rate in the US was still found in Nevada, the state that is home to the well-known wedding chapels in Las Vegas, despite a modest decline from 2021.
According to the CDC, the number and rate of divorces in the US decreased little in 2022, maintaining a declining trend.
In general, marriages in the US are still significantly less common than they formerly were.
Data dating back to 1900 indicates that the peak year for weddings was 1946, with 16.4 marriages per 1,000 persons.
The rate began a decades-long drop in the early 1980s, when it was above 10. The marriage rate in 2022 was 6.2 per 1,000 people.
